This is going to be an ambitious website, but there’s no use putting one up if you’re not gong to be ambitious. The tag line in the header says it. I want to look at life 100 years from now, not that I nor anyone I bring in can claim to have a crystal ball. But we can explore the possibilities of what life may be like at the beginning of the 22nd century. We may come up with some hopeful visions, and probably some bleak ones. Maybe even some fanciful ones.

For anyone who stumbles upon this site in the next little bit, MartianSands isn’t really open for business yet. But rather than put up a construction symbol and keep out sign, I’m going to leave a gap in the fence for visitors to peak in and see what’s gong on. The template design may change a few times before I make a final call on that, so don’t be surprised.

I originally planned MartianSands to be a support site for my upcoming novel, “Lunar Dust, Martian Sands.” (LunarDust.com was already taken by a geologist studying, well, you know, lunar dust.) But I realized that wasn’t very interesting, for viewers or for me. So I wanted to take it a few steps further, banking on my years as a journalist and my experience through my editorial services company, TEC Publishing. Here’s what I know now.

MartianSands will take its look into the future through fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction, I’ll have monthly interviews for maybe a year with people from a variety of backgrounds, scientific, social, cultural, anyone who has an interesting take on what lies ahead. I already have an interview done with a charming Nobel Prize-winner in physics who talks about super conductors helping the environment and about the animated movie “Wall-E.” From an interview I conducted a few years back, I have another physicist who’s worked with Harrison Schmitt, one of the two last astronauts to walk on the Moon, on the use of lunar resources to fund fusion power and fusion drives for spacecraft. Perhaps between those two I’ll slip in a poet or musician.

In fiction, I’ll post sci-fi books for sale that meet the theme of the website. These will mostly be affiliate sales, but the offerings will also include a full-cast audio drama that’s a short story prequel to my novel. Science fiction has come to mean many things, so much that when you look up sci-fi on a major bookseller site, you have to wade through numerous works on vampires, horror and fantasy to find novels placed in a more plausible future. Nothing against the other sub-genres, but I think websites that show more of a personality and focus on a particular theme make it easier for readers to find what they’re looking for, and for new authors to be discovered.

Will MartianSands publish short fiction? I’m considering it. While I’m certain there would be no shortage of submissions, it’s a business decision I want to look at carefully. And I don’t want to try to do too much right away.

I will be posting updates, and announce a grand opening when the site’s ready. In the meantime, comments and suggestions are welcome.